FIRSTS...sorry, but this word just encompasses so much!

I originally wrote this post almost 2 weeks ago, but my poor internet connection failed to save the post and it leaves me starting fresh, trying to live up to just how great I thought my FIRST post was. So here goes...

FIRST DAY: Monday (10/18) was my FIRST day at UCLA, and it was also my FIRST experience with early morning rush hour LA traffic. Monday was also the FIRST of several rainy days (which I'm told by all the locals that rain is almost unheard of here!). Monday felt like a scavenger hunt where I ran all around campus trying to obtain and ID badge, parking spot, and the dreaded mandatory uniforms. All in all it wasn't a bad day. I had my FIRST glimpse at the unit. I met my managers for the FIRST time. Had my FIRST "fight" with HR about my uniforms...basically, since I'm "temporary" they gave me the bottom of the barrel and these scrubs were not only ugly (very faded, some stains, etc.) but also were the wrong size and had the wrong title on them! To be fair, the uniforms could be a lot worse...as in white. I'll take navy blue any day over white uniforms! However, it has been a 2 week ordeal to obtain 3 shirts correctly sized and labeled. I know some people would argue that mandatory uniforms make it easier to get ready in the morning, but because I'm only provided with 3 sets I find myself doing laundry ALL the time :( And to be honest, I really miss wearing my zebra print scrub top!

FIRST SHIFT: Tuesday (10/19) was my first shift where I oriented to the unit. I could not have asked for a kinder or more upbeat nurse to "shadow" with. Lisette made my first day quite enjoyable, and we had some great patients! Each hospital is a bit different in their orientation. At DC I went to a whole week of basic hospital orientation, but here they literally just throw you in and call it "on the job" training. I got 3 shifts to basically learn their online charting system, their new bar code med scan system, where they keep supplies, how to do this and how to do that, etc. Like I said, Lisette was great, but so were our kids. One of my kids was quite a rambunctious little guy and had way too much energy to be cooped up in a hospital room! The children's area here at UCLA is the "Mattel Children's Hospital" as in Mattel the toy makers. Let's just say they left a good FIRST impression on me when they provided this little boy with a halloween costume that rocks! He's a huge Toy Story fan and they brought him a Buzz Lightyear costume and it even had wings that expand and an automated voice that says "I'm Buzz Lightyear, I come in peace". Now I know you are wondering about the wings, picture a back pack like contraption and then wings that pop out with the push of a button to be about 3 ft in wingspan. The look on his face was priceless! For 10 short, yet very long minutes we let him run loose through the unit, showing off his outfit and attacking his "girlfriends"...I mean nurses. It's so sad that these 10 minutes are the only time he gets outside of the room. Sure, he has plenty of visitors, and he is definitely a favorite among the nurses, but 10 minutes is just not enough....however, considering his condition, and his energy level these 10 minutes can feel all too long when we (the medical staff) think about him being off the monitor, his respiratory status, etc. However, it was worth the untangling of wires and cords, worth the momentary stress, it was priceless. Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot to mention that God was so kind to give me a familiar face at work. Back in June, when I FIRST visited California Jenn was unable to get away from camp and sent a friend/stranger to pick me up and her name was Emily. Emily happens to be a nurse at UCLA (and her husband is a pastor at a Southern Baptist Church---crazy that those exist in LA!) and occassionally works in the PICU---and she was there on Monday! So essentially I went to my FIRST day of work and was greeted by the FIRST friend I made once landing in California! God is always looking out for me :)

FIRST LA TRAFFIC: What is the timeframe for this? It's ALL day, EVERY day! Honestly though, I don't mind driving through traffic and large cities, and I can handle the amount of cars on the 6 lanes, but I can't handle the road conditions! In my opinion, driving here wouldn't be half as bad if the roads were smoother. You can easily tell that a roadway was expanded, and where potholes weren't filled, and where lane dividers used to be. All of these factors leave your car bumping along, and there you sit just waiting to bounce into another lane and hit a nearby car! Fortunately, being on the hospital schedule has allowed me to avoid the busiest times on the road. 

RANDOM FIRST IMPRESSIONS: My apartment is gorgeous! I feel completely spoiled by my marble and granite counter tops, and stainless steel whirlpool appliances! This is SUCH an upgrade compared to my accomodations in DC. The apartment building itself has a "Tuscan" feel and looks totally out of place amidst the buildings downtown. Yes, I am living in downtown LA! This is my FIRST time actually living in the heart of a city. However, one could argue that LA has multiple city centers. I'm more on the business side, not the Hollywood or acedamia side. To give you some perspective, the Nokia and Staples center are about a half mile from me, and I'm also within a mile distance of the LA Fashion Distric (don't get too excited, this is more for wholesale). Hm....parking is annoying. It's all about validation here so you better do your shopping in 90 minutes or be prepared to pay for it. I haven't attempted the metro system here yet, but not many coworkers suggest using it. I'll have to try it out and post later about my impression of it.

WEST COAST NURSING IMPRESSIONS: I'd been warned that it's a different style out here, and I'd have to say it's good and bad. I'm not a fan of their IV pumps, they look ancient, and they don't have guardrails (a program which allows you to label the drug/infusion and sets parameters). However, I am a fan of their breakfast and lunch breaks! Never before have I left to take a breakfast or lunch break without feeling guilty for spending so much time away from the bedside since there is always so much to do...not that I ever really took a breakfast break before now, and I'm pretty sure 75% of my lunches at Duke were spent sitting outside my patient's room at the ready to silence alarms, reset pumps, change diapers, etc. I'm LOVING my lunch breaks! I have eaten outside on the patio every day I've worked, and during the 40 minutes I'm not eating I walk around Westwood Village, grab a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks or chat on the phone with various friends and family on the East Coast. It's amazing. At night, people expect you to eat a fast dinner on your "breakfast break" and then go sleep for an hour on your "lunch" break. People take this to the extreme, as in I've seen them stretched out in the backseat of their cars, wrapped up in blankets! I'm not sure if I'll get to the point where I can sleep while at work. I was one of those kids that could never sleep during class, and it just feels wrong to sleep while on the clock (yes, I get paid for half my hour break!) Maybe if I tell myself that I'm eating during the half hour they pay me and sleeping during the half hour of not being paid...then I'll feel it's ok? I know you're thinking that this really isn't that bad, but when people don't know how good they have it they tend to complain about stupid things. It's hard to not yell at them  about how lucky they are to get breaks, and have shopping/restaurants within walking distance.  Oh well, moving on...

I think that is pretty much everything I wanted to write about to encompass my FIRST week. It was a busy week where every day was spent at UCLA, with just enough time to find the closest grocery store and unpack my belongings. Overall, it could have been a lot worse! Sadly, I've not had a chance to explore much of LA yet but I will, no worries. I'm open to suggestions of places to go and things to do!

First things First

It's hard to know where to begin, so I'll just state the obvious, real life fact that is staring me in the face to get this blog going. I AM LIVING IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA!  Now that is not something I ever thought I would say. I've got a lot of dreams including those of traveling the world, being an SNL cast member (shout out to my NYC roadtrip girls!), being a wife and mother, but living in LA was never one of them! Some of you already know that I left my job at Duke in May after almost 3 years there. Looking back I'm so glad I left when I did, but at the time there were great moments of uncertainty. God was gracious in giving me both a supportive family and extensive group of friends and without all of them I'd not be where I am or who I am today! In reality, I wanted to start this blog after leaving Duke so you all could follow my travel nursing career at the beginning in DC...but that didn't happen, so here we are on assignment #2 and on the opposite coast trying to redeem myself and keep you all informed on the adventure I call my life. 

Why did I title this "The adventures of a Kraftsingle" you might ask. That is simply because Em (my younger, talented, and beautiful sister) and myself have dubbed ourselves "the original Kraft singles" as adapted from the Kraft cheese commercials. Hey, you gotta make the most of a last name like ours! And this is way better than being dubbed "Mac" 'n "Cheese"!

If you are still reading, I thank you! While I know that I am not the only person to have a blog the idea that people want to read, and may regularly read what I have to write about my life seems so...pretentious. I'll try to live up to your hopes and expectations! With this initial post I hope to explain how I ended up in LA and detail the best cross country road trip I could have asked for!

I literally drove coast to coast from DC to LA, and the only part I regret is driving through Kansas for what felt like eternity! I’ve decided to only travel to cities that are abbreviated by 2 letters…just kidding! I can’t even think of any other cities that fit those qualifications.  For those of you who are wondering about my “travel goals” I do have a list of different places I’d like to go. Some of you know that Fall is my favorite season. I LOVE the pumpkins, spices, apple ciders and apple crisps, layering on clothes, the leaves falling off trees and swirling into the air, and the crunchy leaves beneath my feet…and in MY head the next perfect assignment would be to go to Boston and be surrounded by all the Fall goodness and closer to one of my best friends from my “days at Duke”, my dear Mihoko.  However, as hard as I tried it was just not my time to go to Boston. So then I pursued a job in Denver. It was a long shot for both, these are 2 of the top destinations, but I had to try! As my days in DC became fewer and fewer, and my prayers became more frequent and fervent it became apparent that California was going to be the best option for my next assignment…unless I wanted to go to Idaho (but I’m not that big of a potato fan)! So I started to rework my “plan” and change my thinking from all things Fall to all things seasonless. The new plan, aim for Northern Cali where it’s at least cooler so I can wear my sweaters and scarves! I know, it’s vain thinking.  I got excited, there were jobs in San Fran and Palo Alto, that would work! What you ask was the next obstacle? I picked up a few viruses from my patient that left me with laryngitis for a week! When these hospitals called I had no voice to interview. That left me with UCLA who seemed eager to hire me and bump my start date another week back to accommodate my drive cross country.

These last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind! I’ll try to hit the highlights and not be too wordy (which you know is hard for me!) I left Children’s National in DC at the end of Sept., had made several friends at work (travelers and permanent staff), had a job offer to come back permanently or temporary whenever I want…it ended up being harder to leave than I thought. On top of all these reasons, I just LOVE DC. It’s familiar. I know the sights. I have lots of good friends within a few hrs. I have the childhood memories.  Now I have the adult memories and with that thought I drove back to Raleigh for a quick un-packing and re-packing, weeding out what I did and didn’t use, what I should and shouldn’t cram into my car for the drive. 

I then headed up to Lynchburg for a few last college friend farewells, and then off to WV to visit some family! While in WV visiting we ate at THE Dairy Queen (my aunt and uncle were renovating their kitchen). A few thoughts on this, you know it’s a small town when:

you refer to a restaurant with THE beforehand

you can order a taco salad at THE Dairy Queen

you overhear a local comment on the new addition of a coffeeshop as “the best thing          to happen since we got that McDonalds”

After a splitting a lemon scone and downing a double shot cappuccino it was time to hit the road, with one more pit stop at Marshall to grab lunch with an old college friend, and then off to OH as the parents were anxiously awaiting my arrival! While OH isn’t “home” for me it does have many people that I love. I’m so glad I got to visit with my grandparents and help Granny Jo make apple dumplings, and visit with my little cousins. One of my sweetest memories from that visit was when my 3 y/o cousin Caleb was playing with my necklace (it’s a Tiffany Key that my family gave me for my 25^th bday and said “it was the key to my future”) and in all childlike sincerity he asked me, “Do you ever lock yourself out?” All I could do was laugh and answer that yes, sometimes I do! All too quickly my wkd in OH flew by and  on Monday morning I found myself on a flight to San Diego to get fingerprinted to expedite my CA RN license. I'm overwhelmed by how many friends God has provided me with, and with what wonderful locations they are located in! An old coworker, Britt (from both Duke and DC days) was able to pick me up, feed me, run me around, and babysit me until dinner with my college & Raleigh friend Emily, who then dropped me off at the airport for my red eye back to OH. After being up for about 40 hrs I crashed, only to realize I had to completely repack my car and so the reality of driving across country began to really set in as I mapped out where things should be placed in the car and where I should sleep each night to make my start date on time.


I hate to leave you hanging, and I know this is a horrible transition, but at some point I must end this forever long outpouring of words and learn how to upload photos for a more enjoyable experience, as well as create a little intrigue so you will come back for future posts! Please bear with me as I venture into the world of blogging!